Now for some news and doings from three top-shelf writers I’d recommend even if they weren’t good friends:

Mad Dogs, the long-awaited second crime novel from hard-writing hero Brian Hodge, is finally available. And there was much rejoicing. A struggling actor is mistaken for the criminal he recently protrayed on an “America’s Most Wanted”-type show. Blood is shed, complications ensue (and compound), pages fly by. Booklist says:  “Horror fans know Hodge’s dark fiction … but he’s a new name to most crime-fiction readers. That deserves to change.” I couldn’t agree more.

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John Rector writes some of the most tightly-crafted, hard-hitting short fiction around. Check out his latest if you don’t believe me. (Top menu, Fiction/John Rector)

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Anthony Neil Smith is a Harry Crews for the new millennium, and Bleak House Books is one of the finest indie presses out there. Now these two great tastes will taste great together, starting with Yellow Medicine in 2008. I’ll be waiting. . . .